By web presence, you mean build my own website or blog. That I can do, but having a web presence can go for you or against you I guess. It depends how you tackle it. I know Stu has a blog I think, and that he's revealing extracts and characters to elicit interest, but is there a danger of revealing too much? And if you're not going to write a blog of the journey to get published, promote your unpublished book, what do you write about?

I had my first standard rejection in today from my second round of subs to agents, so this thread is becoming more important.

I've had about six rejections so far (or the opinion of someone I have never met as I like t call them!) and am just keeping going. I guess with this whole publishing thing, it is a big old adventure. And in the end, e-books will probably give us all the chance of cutting out the middle man (agent/publisher) and doing it ourselves anyway! In terms of the blog, I have indeed featured excerpts. I guess I will continue to do so as the book is what it is. Bloody hell, this is a fun journey isn't it! Come on! Keep the faith Lorraine! You'll get there in the end and I for one will drink a bottle of wine for you!!

Hi Stu. Have you tried describing your book in one short sentence (a logline)? My editor suggested this to me when I needed to identify (a) my book's central theme, (b) its genre, and (c) a snappy title.

I could give it a go! The more I think about it though, the more I wonder how much I am willing to concede just so some agent or publishing person gives me the time of day!

In terms of finding names of who to pitch to, it's hard if you don't know the genre/business, but a useful thing to do is check the rights deals in the bookseller on a daily, or at least weekly, basis.

It's very useful in terms of finding out who's acquiring and what kind of books are selling.

They are available on their website at http://www.thebookseller.com/ and there is a panel at the bottom right which lists "latest rights deals". These always include the editor's (and usually agent's) name, and often give a snippet about what they are looking to acquire next.

Obviously it won't give the email address but you can generally track down the formula for each publishing house quite easily - for eg anyone at Harper Collins is first.last@harpercollins.co.uk, anyone at Random House is initialsurname@randomhouse.co.uk, etc etc. Everyone Who's Anyone in UK Publishing is also a good resource.

This might also help you Petal? I can see asking for an email address is tricky, but I don't think there's any harm in asking "who's your editor by the way?" It's not like you're asking them to give you an in, or anything.

I think the bottom line though, is it's bloody tough whichever route you take.

Good stuff there Flora! Thanks for the tips!

Yeah, i probably need to be more assertive, flora! x

Stu: The object of the exercise that I suggested above is not to concede stuff to the gatekeepers, but to better understand your own work. The snappy title idea stems from the need to reach readers. Fiction, after all, is entertainment.

Yep, good point. It's funny, when people ask me what my book is about I struggle a little. Something I definitely have to work on! I guess it's like if you're selling a car and someone asks you what it's like and you say "erm, well, its got wheels and I really like it so can you buy it please??"

One of the most effective tag-lines must have been Eoin Colfer's for Artemis Fowl, on the strength of which he apparently sold the book and film rights before even writing a single word of the story - "Die Hard with fairies". Mind you, he'd had several children's books published before that so I guess the publisher/film company would expect that he could deliver.

As for web presence, this is something I'm about to work on, having realised I'm somewhat behind the times. I made some notes on what a couple of editors said about this at the recent FantasyCon:

http://www.writewords.org.uk/forum/48_380848.asp

Not true, that story about Eoin Colfer. He wrote Artemis Fowl, the first book, queried it to lots of agents before his current agent, Ed Victor, went for it.

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Eoin is married to my first cousin's sister-in-law. He gave me the copy of Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 1997 that he used (and marked) when seeking an agent for Artemis.

Terry: Who is Jo Fletcher and what is her new imprint?

Not true, that story about Eoin Colfer. He wrote Artemis Fowl, the first book, queried it to lots of agents before his current agent, Ed Victor, went for it.

Doh! Should have known that was too good a story to be true . . . I suspect some PR spin promoters cooked it up, rather like J K Rowling's story of being the hard-up single mother eeking out cups of tea in cafes while writing the first HP book.

Terry: Who is Jo Fletcher and what is her new imprint?

Jo Fletcher was the SF/Fantasy editor at Gollancz for many years. She's a real enthusiast for the genre; has always attended FantasyCon and EasterCon, sat on panels, given one-to-ones, been very approachable etc. I had a one-to-one with her at FantasyCon on two occasions (the first time, I gate-crashed politely; didn't have an appointment). The second time, before she discussed the pages I'd already sent her, she said, "You've got one minute to sell me your book: go!" After I'd blathered rather incoherently for quite a bit more than a minute, she made the point that she has to do the very same thing if she wants to sell my book to her acquisitions committee; therefore, in her view, authors need to learn to do it. At another Con, she made the point about submissions taking the form of the AI sheet. So I sent her a submission package doing just that and she asked to see the full ms. Mind you, that was some months ago, so I'm not holding my breath. Her new imprint is with Quercus, called Jo Fletcher Books. If I recall, she is actually open to submissions at the mo; obviously for SF/Fantasy. If you're going to try, remember the AI approach.